How Would You Triage the Latest Crises Clinton Faces?

by Daniel J Gerstle · 2009-10-29 09:18:00 UTC
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Secretary of State visits CFC’s White House by UNC - CFC - USFK.Take a moment to imagine you are US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (or insert your own Foreign Secretary here). Your week is action packed. War in Afghanistan and Iraq, proxy conflict in Pakistan, and the traditional challenges of Israel / Palestine, Sudan, Somalia, Korea, and so on.

You've got meetings on Capitol Hill. Cabinet meetings at the White House. On Sunday, you barely have energy left to watch re-runs of the West Wing; Gossip Girl.

And every spare moment your staff is adding new crises to the pile. You figure you can cut out a couple games of racketball to catch up on your over-packed inbox. Which of these very real crises which lit up this week would you tackle first?

A) Help prevent an escalation of violence in Guinea. Dispatch your ASS (Assistant Secretary of State) to Conakry to meet the Foreign Minister and African regional reps to figure out how to address a series of revenge murders after a brutal government crack down on protesters...

B) Find out why in God's name Saudi Arabian border guards got into a deadly shooting match with a Shiite militia in northern Yemen, call in the CIA Director for a briefing; scolding...

C) Investigate how volatile the mutual mass expulsions could be on the Angola-DRC border. Authorize a special task force to fly to the region and check in with aid agencies; machete salesmen...

D) Celebrate the Niger leader's apparent success in granting amnesty to three of the four Tuareg rebel groups in exchange for their agreeing to disarm. Make a personal phone call and try to learn lessons for future peace agreements. To preserve any chance for democracy, then ask him to postpone elections and step down. Expect resistance...

E) None of the above. Instead, use the time to curl up in your swanket (sweater + blanket), fry sweet potato and cheese sandwiches, and log in to Facebook to catch up on the latest posts on your favorite groups, "El Geneina ... Garden of the Desert ...," "We Hate the New Facebook," and "Nobel Prizes are for Underachievers."

[Photo: US Embassy, Korea]

Daniel J Gerstle is a journalist, human rights researcher, and humanitarian aid consultant. He is Editor and Chief Correspondent for HELO: The Crisis Story Magazine.
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